{"id":17227,"date":"2024-02-07T21:58:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T13:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/former-blue-origin-presidents-startup-raises-funding-to-go-after-moon-resources\/"},"modified":"2024-02-07T21:58:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T13:58:58","slug":"former-blue-origin-presidents-startup-raises-funding-to-go-after-moon-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/former-blue-origin-presidents-startup-raises-funding-to-go-after-moon-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Blue Origin president\u2019s startup raises funding to go after moon resources"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Space
Space industry executive Rob Meyerson speaks at a 2016 space conference. (ISPCS via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A stealthy space venture co-founded by the former president of Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture says it\u2019s raising funds to move ahead with its plan to harvest resources on the moon and bring them back for use on Earth.<\/p>\n

Former Blue Origin executive Rob Meyerson is listed among the executive officers for Interlune in a financial form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 1. The form reports that the startup is offering $17.7 million in equity, and that $15.6 million of that total was sold as of the filing date.<\/p>\n

The SEC filing says 18 investors have taken part in the offering but does not identify those investors. We\u2019ve reached out to Meyerson for more information and will update this report with anything we can pass along.<\/p>\n

Interlune was founded in 2020, but details about the venture were shrouded in secrecy until last October \u2014 when one of the venture\u2019s other co-founders, Blue Origin engineer Gary Lai, discussed the company\u2019s vision during an awards banquet at Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe aim to be the first company that harvests natural resources from the moon to use here on Earth,\u201d Lai told the audience. \u201cWe\u2019re building a completely novel approach to extract those resources, efficiently, cost-effectively and also responsibly. The goal is really to create a sustainable in-space economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Interlune has turned to the investment market. A form that was filed with the SEC in 2022 focused on an investment offering that involved an agreement for future equity. <\/p>\n

Interlune has also been awarded a $246,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to work on a system to sort out moon dirt by particle size.<\/p>\n

This month\u2019s SEC filing lists a Seattle address for the venture, but previous reports have mentioned connections to Tacoma, Wash.; and to Estes Park, Colo.<\/p>\n

Meyerson has a long history in the aerospace industry: He\u2019s best-known for his role as Blue Origin\u2019s president from 2003 to 2018, but before joining Bezos\u2019 space company, he served as senior program manager for Kistler Aerospace\u2019s K-1 rocket program and as an aerospace engineer at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center.<\/p>\n

Since leaving Blue Origin, Meyerson has been a consultant to several aerospace ventures. In 2021 he became a member of the board of directors for Texas-based Axiom Space, which is wrapping up its third crewed mission to the International Space Station this week.<\/p>\n

Other executive officers listed on Interlune\u2019s SEC filing include Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972; Indra Hornsby, who previously served as an executive at Rocket Lab USA; and Katelin Holloway, who is a founding partner at Seven Seven Six, an early-stage venture capital firm backed by Alexis Ohanian.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Artemis program to send astronauts to the moon has heightened interest in concepts for extracting raw materials on the moon.<\/p>\n

The top item on the list is water ice \u2014 which could theoretically be converted into drinkable water as well as hydrogen fuel and breathable oxygen. But there are other potential resources. For example, Blue Origin is looking into a process for manufacturing solar cells and transmission wire from lunar materials \u2014 and some experts say the moon could be mined for resources suitable for export to Earth, ranging from precious metals to helium-3 for future fusion power plants.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Space industry executive Rob Meyerson speaks at a 2016 space conference. (ISPCS via YouTube) A stealthy space venture co-founded by the former president of Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture says it\u2019s raising funds to move ahead with its plan to harvest resources on the moon and bring them back for use on Earth. Former […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,259,4339,625,4513,4329],"class_list":["post-17227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-funding","tag-interlune","tag-moon","tag-rob-meyerson","tag-startups"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}